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The produced amount of hazardous waste has decreased by 2.7 times,
in comparison to that in 1990.
Legislation demands that qualitative and quantitative analysis
of waste is required, although this is not always done. The
amounts of hazardous waste are reported by enterprises to the
Latvian Environment Agency. However, sometimes enterprises do not
conduct analyses to determine the presence of hazardous wastes,
but nevertheless include the waste in the hazardous category.
Reports on work with hazardous waste were
submitted by 786 enterprises in 2000. The total amount of produced
hazardous waste was 93,000 tonnes, of which 53,000 t were
sediments from metal tempering processes and 27,000 t were
industrial waste water treatment sludge. About 13,000 t of waste
containing oil and oil products was produced by oil storage sites,
petrol fuel stations, transport and vehicle service enterprises.
In 2000, fairly precise inventory was made of
infectious waste (127 t produced) associated with human and animal
health care and research.
The greatest proportion of hazardous waste is
produced by the metal production sector (60%).
Hazardous waste which can not be reprocessed must
be stored in the territory of enterprises. Over a long period of
time, about 1,500,000 t of hazardous waste which require
reprocessing or work have now been accumulated in enterprise
territories.
The possibilities for waste processing are limited.
In 2000, 40 enterprises involved in collection and processing of
hazardous waste were registered in Latvia. At these enterprises,
of the received waste amounts, 3% were incinerated and 69% were
physically-chemically reprocessed.
Work conducted at
enterprises dealing with collection and processing of
hazardous waste, 2000
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The development of a hazardous waste management
system was continued in 2000. Work has begun on technical-economic
assessment of a hazardous waste collection station in Rīga, and
on the study of industrial and hazardous waste management in
Daugavpils. The non-liquid agricultural chemical storage site at
Strautiņi in Alūksne District was terminated and cleaned.
Reprocessing of environmentally harmful goods
and product residues
In 2000, seventeen eneterprises received subsidies
amounting to 1,800,000 Ls from the Latvian Environmental
Protection Fund for reprocessing of environmentally harmful goods
and product residues.
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